I´m not playing Babes in the game I was referring to. But I checked the sunk list for Jap subs and I had 2 sunk (total and not counting midgets) before July 42. After that something happened and I started sinking about 3-5 per months with 4 in July 42 and a record 5 in March 43.

Not all of those are actually sunk of course but its still a pretty good indication of something happening in July 42. Or it could be just a strange fluke. But lately it has been death for any of his subs to show up. Last turn I had a Jap sub receiving 2 penetrating hits. I guess that would be pretty deadly for any sub.

well, there is something happening in July, many of your ships undergo their 7/42 upgrade which means they get a better ASW value and carry more reloads for their DC racks. I have been through these upgrades already, nearing 10/42 in the game at the moment but my ASW is just pityful. Shallow waters seem to be the only areas where you can damage a sub, no chance in deep water hexes.

Do you know of any tweaks to Allied ASW in the Babes? I might have missed it but I did not think it was touched. Only the Japanese super E as far as I know.

I agree with the CD results at Baatan. Pretty sad. But it has always been that if you do not set "escorts to bombard" then your surface ships just seem to be immune to even the largest CD guns. Very frustrating. CD guns seem to work a bit better with invasion defense.

I have never been satisfied with how easy it is to conduct shore bombardment.

Babes has tweaked all ASW, not only the super E. As it turns out though, I have not been able to sink a single sub in nearly a year of fighting and my destroyers won't get any better (at least not those 100 that are on map already). If there is a trigger at some point that changes something, I got no clue, if there isn't one and it goes on like this then I will not be able to sink more than 3-5 subs in 4 years.

Sorry to hear this. If it is the case then it is a major mistake and would prevent me from playing da babes. In stock I find Allied ASW to be spot on and would not like to see it change. (weak at first, then overwhelming). Now, you are talking about a very potent Japanese sub force in 1944-45 with long lances. I would rather see the super Es sink all of my Allied subs than face that.

But as said here, others are having a better time of it. Perhaps it is not a problem but you need to go back to ASW school

Do you know of any tweaks to Allied ASW in the Babes? I might have missed it but I did not think it was touched. Only the Japanese super E as far as I know.

I agree with the CD results at Baatan. Pretty sad. But it has always been that if you do not set "escorts to bombard" then your surface ships just seem to be immune to even the largest CD guns. Very frustrating. CD guns seem to work a bit better with invasion defense.

I have never been satisfied with how easy it is to conduct shore bombardment.

Babes has tweaked all ASW, not only the super E. As it turns out though, I have not been able to sink a single sub in nearly a year of fighting and my destroyers won't get any better (at least not those 100 that are on map already). If there is a trigger at some point that changes something, I got no clue, if there isn't one and it goes on like this then I will not be able to sink more than 3-5 subs in 4 years.

Sorry to hear this. If it is the case then it is a major mistake and would prevent me from playing da babes. In stock I find Allied ASW to be spot on and would not like to see it change. (weak at first, then overwhelming). Now, you are talking about a very potent Japanese sub force in 1944-45 with long lances. I would rather see the super Es sink all of my Allied subs than face that.

But as said here, others are having a better time of it. Perhaps it is not a problem but you need to go back to ASW school

Oh, ASW school isn't needed because those subs that are in areas I care of are frequently attacked by hordes of destroyers. Attacked means nothing though.

I would have to go through every combat report since day one of the AAR which is a tad too much but I estimate around 50 attacks by ASW groups (four DD) on IJN subs without a single sub confirmed sunk. Perhaps 3-5 actually took at least some damage. The only thing I can make out so far is the fact that IJN subs have never been encountered in shallow waters (or base hexes), so all these attacks have been in deep water hexes.

while I have first thought moving some fighters to Bataan to ambush the air attacks on Clark Field was a smart move it will turn out it wasn't in the long run because now the enemy constantly bombs Bataan... why is this a problem? Because Bataan has some flak, not really a lot but far more than I would like and those flak guns are using up my precious supply... those couple of flak guns are using more supply per day than my whole army sitting at Clark Field... using pretty much all of my USN fleet subs bringing supplies to Luzon meant keeping my supplies there at pretty much constant levels, since the air attacks on Bataan I am losing roughly 500 supplies per day with my subs still moving in supplies... and the only reason for this is the flak that is firing at bombers over Bataan while Clark Field hasn't got flak...

100% prepped troops coming ashore which should limit our losses... most of the troops should be on the beach at the end of the day... we are in no hurry though as I doubt the IJ will interfere with our attack...

10 troops of a US HMG Section lost from landing craft during unload of 24th Infantry Div Motorized Support lost overboard during unload of 24th Infantry Div /5 Motorized Support lost from landing craft during unload of 24th Infantry Div /12 13 troops of a USA 42 Rifle Squad lost overboard during unload of 112th USA Base Force /2

there's more on the island than I expected... really wonder why he didn't try to evacuate those units after the IJN was defeated in the area... I expected to face some 200 enemy av which actually turns out to be 320... jungle and surely some forts, will probably take longer than a couple of days to clear the island...

Allied bombardment causes only Allied losses... this model is nothing but wrong... fully reconned the base showed 25000 enemy troops which turned out to be 15000 which is pretty much what I had expected while I miscalculated the total av of the enemy by roughly 100 points...

third day we unload troops... the combat units were unloaded within one day but the support units still had some elements on the ships today... really waiting for mid 43 when I can finally do invasions using APA/AKA/LST...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Bataan , at 78,77

293 bombers cause 1 disabled engineer squad... if you would think such a strike would at least cause heavy disruption within the attacked units then you are wrong, that attack did exactly nothing other than causing heavy op losses within my carrier based ac... it's all about terrain and jungle in this case makes the enemy units 100% immune to air attacks...

expanding the front South of Akyab... we have roughly 6000 av (British/Australian/Indian) marching into Burma... 2000 av are moving on Prome with the other 4000 av moving onto Magwe... took Ramree Island to build it up if needed but I doubt we will have to... there has never been an airwar over Burma (nor India) and I am pretty sure the enemy won't fight for Burma, especially as there are still halve a dozen divisions occupied on Luzon...

all troops ashore and in excellent shape I've ordered an attack for today... the engineers were able to knock down a fort but the attack results in a 1:2 causing pretty much equal losses on both sides... after seeing what the enemy got on the island it may really become a harder affair than initially expected...

here's the situation in Burma, the army that was ordered to take Prome entered the empty base yesterday that auto converted to our side... as you can see, the Japanese are fleeing Burma already, I expect Cuttlefish to make a stand somewhere South of Rangoon where he has got better suited terrain for the defense, probably first line of defense at Moulmein where he can sit behind a river... means we will get Burma for free (as did the Japanese 9 months ago) and China will get the well needed supply again where supply stocks are down to rouhgly 100,000...

Prome is only a level 1 airfield at the moment so the base can only hold a low amount of supply plus it can not be used for air ops in the area... I doubt we will have to start an airwar in the region anytime soon (glad about it) so building up the base to level 9 airfield will mostly have the reason to have a big supply hub in the area... the base auto switched and a day later we had around 50,000 supplies being sucked in from Akyab where we had 150,000... then someone tell me he has a supply problem somewhere in Burma, calculating supply rates per day and all the blah blah (have to think about Andy in this case)... this is just bullocks, supply flows around like wild, otherwhise we wouldn't have 50,000 supplies pop up at a level 1 airfield we just took today... no, it isn't Japanese supply, it came from Akyab because there the supply stock went down by that number (checked with tracker) and as you can see on the below screen, today, when we took the base there is still the red! for no supply there...

so to all those "you can not do this or that within or outside monsoon season", forget your theories, go forward, play the game, supply flows to wherever I want in Burma... it might not come from Calcutta but it sure is coming from Cox Bazar and Akyab so if you fail to build up those bases, then it might be another question but in my case, both Akyab and Cox Bazar got a level 9 airfield, and the port maxxed out with a lot of nav support at the bases, supply is flowing into Burma just fine... and from there it will autoflow to China, without me doing anything, it just flows there... don't ask me how much is wasted when it flows over those trails or cross country (I don't care, I am drowning in supplies), all I can say, it flows just perfectly...

that's a shallow water hex resulting in the sub taking some minor damage... recently spoken to Cuttlefish about ASW and he got the same oppinion as me, ASW is non existant as both sides seem to have sunk O N E sub so far with ASW despite surely more than a hundred encounters of ASW forces and subs...

for a repeated time the enemy bombards Bataan, a base having one of the best coast defense of that time... for a repeated time the CD does nothing despited having ample supply, no disruption and all guns ready to fire... the enemy BB even use their heavy AA guns to fire at the place, while neither our heavy nor medium guns do anything... the only way I can comment on the way the game models coast defense is: silly, stupid, unrealistic, ludicrous, totally off... it just fails...

the enemy sends single, unescorted freighters to supply bases like Hollandia, Kavieng, Manus, etc... a good chance for our subs patrolling off those bases... these bases are all on the list of being attacked soon... a single torp hit got problem sinking that freighter...

xAK Teiryu Maru is sighted by SS S-36 SS S-36 launches 2 torpedoes

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Bataan , at 78,77

the small rest of what is left of the Dutch on Sumatra is kicked around... the bulk of the Dutch Army still holds at Bandoeng (Java) though, still having some 35000 supplies... both the Allied strongholds on Luzon and Bandoeng will ultimately run out of supplies though, I won't be able to move the front close enough in time... I could try and push hard and would even expect to reach at least one of the pockets but the cost to do so would be too high...

Allied sub performance really stinks... granted, a British sub was taking part in the IJN's defeat off New Caledonia by heavily damaging (and taking out of the fight) of CV Hiryu and USN subs sunk a heavy cruiser NW of Borneo but the attacks on enemy merchant convoys fail 4 out of 5 times, even when the convoy actually isn't a convoy but a single unescorted freighter, pretty much the easiest target for a sub...

needless to say that pretty much all of the attacks on tanker convoys fail completely... and then I haven't even employed my USN fleet subs with defective torps, the subs that are operating against the enemy all got functioning torpedoes...

perhaps I also shouldn't bitch about ASW either as this sub is caught in shallow waters and heavily damaged (no risk of sinking)... nah, ASW sucked for 10 months of war already and to be honest I have not much hope it will change as my ships all had their upgrades already, don't know about the Japanese...

we get a 2:1 and the base is about to fall but take horrible lots of disablements... 24th Inf Div takes the majority of the losses and soon won't be combat ready anymore running risk of seeing those disabledments turning into KIA... Luganville really turns into a tough target, especially that Special base force seems to be a killer unit as both the Garrison unit as well as the engineers got no combat strenght left...

whoops! Enterprise has been lucky here... the carriers are moving towards Rabaul ahead of our invasion convoy to land troops at the most important base in the area... LBA has been ordered to take care of all airfields in the area but refused to fly for days already... I doubt the enemy will move in his LBA (I certainly wood) so it might not be a real big problem that the airfields aren't knocked out already but it leaves a bad feeling if the carriers arrive near Rabaul and the potential threats of the fields in the area are still there...

we enter October with the usual IJ bombings but also with our upcoming invasion of Rabaul... the carriers launch a fully coordinated strike from my single CV TF (once more, wonder why ppl really put that much effort in carrier stacking, lol) that brings up nothing but a pityful result in perfect weather and full detection level... this, together with my LBA refusing to fly at all for days (for no reason at all) could really end in a disaster if the Japanese would be deciding to fight, but Cuttlefish is just watching me operating in the area...

ok, the bombers from Port Moresby finally took off to bomb Rabaul, would have been three days too late if the enemy would have put LBA onto the field to attack my carriers nearby followed by the invasion convoys...

today's attacks costs us a couple of bombers together with the usual patrol lost to ops for roughly the same number of enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground... the campaign is nearly a year old but I can't remember having had a phase with an intense airwar, the Japanese are clearly any confrontation which is not really the right way IMO as 42 is their year, not the Allied's... when 43 comes around, the airwar will clearly go our way with Corsairs, Hellcats, Lightnings, B-24 in numbers and the all dominating Thunderbolt...

the 4E strike yesterday left the airbase of Rabaul in ruins but I decided to still have the carriers launch another full strike (fully coordinated ) against the base, dealing the usual not so great amount of damage... the airfield isn't in use nor is it operational though...

Port Moresby's heavy bombers were ordered to strike Kavieng where the enemy has stationed some transports to evacuate troops from one of the nearby bases... 5000 enemy troops reported at the island (lvl 3 airfield), surely not more than 3000 there and not a real threat when it comes down to launching an airstrike against my fleet but a nuisance attack could well take place so the 4E worked over the place today destroying a dozen transports on the ground...

our deliberate failed in terms of assault odds but we knocked down the last fort and destroyed a good number of already disabled combat squads... still a non expected hard and long fight on Luganville...

Here's what is going to happen tomorrow. The two invasion convoys will embark the combat units at Rabaul and at the same time we will land two USMC raider btn at Gasmata to take the base from a small Japanese unit that is isolated there. USMC paras will seize the dot base North of Gasmata which will result in the defenders of Rabaul having no retreat path. I don't like kicking units out of their base, I preferre destroying them in place. The invasion convoys at Rabaul will have a SAG as close cover lead by BC Repulse. I've got more BB available but don't want to use the slow ones as they usually just draw some torpedoes. The carriers will take position NW of Rabaul but we don't expect any airstrikes or appearance of the IJN. Only the small airfield of Munda is operational (having a small garrison) and Truk which has over a hundred fighters plus the same number of bombers but Truk is just too far away and if a strike would be launched it could only be an unescorted one which would probably be shred by Cap.

We spotted a PB at Manus (could be more than one ship), a cruiser squadron will take care of it and bombard the place if enemy aircraft would unexpectatly show up there (base is damaged but could be operational).

have I already said how ridicoulosly the game models coast defenses? Noone can stand up saying I had a bad die roll, this is happening for the 5th or 6th time now and we have yet to score a single hit on the enemy ships bombarding a place that is defended by real heavy CD...

after dispatching the PB the heavy cruisers work over the island hitting both the base installations and 54th Div that is defending the island... Manus is also on the list of shortly coming targets so I wonder if 54th Div is in full strenght defending the island... 25000 troops reported being there but the real number will be smaller, have 1000 av prepping for the target, including two full Inf divisions, several tank units, combat engineers and support, should be doable... single, unescorted xAK and now this PB might be an indication that the islands in the area are running short of supplies which could really speed up the fall of the enemy stronghold...

Rabaul got no coast defense and our troops storm ashore in good order suffering only the usual inevitable losses to accidents...

81mm M1 Mortar lost from landing craft during unload of 41st Infantry Div /4 Motorized Support lost in surf during unload of 40th Infantry Div /5 13 troops of a USA 41 Rifle Squad lost overboard during unload of 40th Infantry Div /8 Motorized Support dropped into water during unload of 40th Infantry Div /12 11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 accidentally lost during unload of 2nd Australian Div 11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 lost from landing craft during unload of 2nd Australian Div /4 12 troops of a Vickers Section lost from landing craft during unload of 5th Australian Div /1 11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 lost in surf during unload of 5th Australian Div /3 11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 lost from landing craft during unload of 5th Australian Div /5 11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 accidentally lost during unload of 5th Australian Div /6 11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 lost overboard during unload of 5th Australian Div /8 11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 lost in surf during unload of 2nd Australian Div /8 11 troops of a AIF Inf Section 42 accidentally lost during unload of 2nd Australian Div /10 Motorized Support dropped into water during unload of I Australian Corps 12 Support troops accidentally lost during unload of I Australian Corps /5 M3 Stuart Light Tank damaged beyond repair during unload of 193rd Tank Bn Motorized Support accidentally lost during unload of 5th Australian Div /13 81mm M1 Mortar lost in surf during unload of 754th Tank Bn /3

another heavy attack on Manus just to make sure... there is no flak fire above the base at all which either indicates there is no flak there at all or the base has run out of supply already... both seems strange to me conisdering Cuttlefish has placed 54th Div on the island...

endless stream of dispersed bombers show up... compare these strikes from a level 9 airfield that doesn't suffer from any stacking penalty with my fully coordinated strikes from a horrible overstacked CV TF and you may be going if you have ever taken part in one of those CV stacking discussion threads...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Manus , at 101,119

are you missing something? You might have noticed that there is no IJ bombardment due to our troops landing at Rabaul, which must either mean we see a bug, or there is nothing there able to fire at my troops... asked Cuttlefish if he has completely abandoned Rabaul of combat troops... as it looks, it will be total overkill what we have landed at the place but due to the need of 3 months of planning I had to make sure I bring enough to the party and in three months the situation could change dramatically...

are you missing something? You might have noticed that there is no IJ bombardment due to our troops landing at Rabaul, which must either mean we see a bug, or there is nothing there able to fire at my troops...

One would have thought, wouldn't one, that DP guns would be able to fire on ground troops?

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Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

are you missing something? You might have noticed that there is no IJ bombardment due to our troops landing at Rabaul, which must either mean we see a bug, or there is nothing there able to fire at my troops...

One would have thought, wouldn't one, that DP guns would be able to fire on ground troops?

They fired lots of shots at the ships, scoring only 5 hits. Either their guns could not bear on the beaches or Management failed to write "Ground Support" into their job descriptions.

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No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth

here you can see why our amphib assault didn't trigger an IJ bombardment, there are no combat troops at all... Rabaul is held by support and flak units... WOW... our Army is of course total overkill but who would really think I would get Rabaul that easily... and if I wouldn't defend a base, I would evacuate all or at least most of my support units as it just makes no sense to me to sacrifice 10,000 troops for nothing... we do have air superiority in the area but it wouldn't have been much of a problem to evacuate most of the troops IMO, that's what fast transport is for... our closest airfield is Finschhaven but LBA usually isn't dominating enough to really keep the enemy from evacuation attempts so I would have certainly tried it...

the hard fight at Luganville still goes on and we get a nasty surprise as the enemy was able to build up his forts to level 2 in the last days of no fighting as we forgot to keep the base damaged... silly mistake that prolongs a fight that we should have won already...

we have to take Gasmata first, then will order the attack here... taking Rabaul will be a cake walk... if the IJN doesn't surprise us suddenly then the only real loss will be an xAK that sunk after hitting underwater rocks during unloading (no troops aboard, just supply)...

the SNLF was trashed by the Marauder attacks already and is now destroyed by our Raider bn... with the paras having seized the dot base further North, Gasmata in Allied hands too the enemy at Rabaul is cut off now and will be also destroyed, attack ordered for tomorrow...

I wonder if he gambled on you thinking that Rabaul was heavily garrisoned and you would therefore bypass it, as it gets bypassed in many games? Sort of like when someone breaks in through a window when the door is unlocked!

had to bring the B-24D back to Noumea to surpress Luganville to prevent the enemy from building up forts again... as the Special base force is the only unit there that has real combat value (still nearly 100AV) this also heavily disrupts the unit... you can fully disrupt them with a base attack (support units) but do nothing if you order a ground attack...

Rabaul falls easily in the first attack, our divisions overrun the enemy positions for virtually no loss... heck, that whole operation was by far easier than one would expect and it's only 10/42, not some time in 44... I really don't know what Cuttlefish is up to, ok, he lost four carriers, four battleships and several cruisers so far but his airforce should be in perfect shape (better than at start of the war with Tojos available too) so I really don't know why our offensives have not been opposed at all (except one small strike against our ships at Lautern that was obliberated easily)... same goes for his ground troops, he should have enough available to actually put up a fight for his important areas (both Timor and Rabaul actually are quite important for the enemy at this still early stage of the war) so why I pretty much get this places for free is beyond me... on the other hand, he got something like halve a dozen divisions sieging Clark Field for no result while he could use secondary troops to just starve that place to death...

the enemy received something like 15,000 political points so far, we have a 100% Sitzkrieg in China with no side attempting to do something, so there should be enough combat troops available to at least put up a fight... together with his airforce I sure think he could make it far harder for us but he doesn't even attempt to do so it seems, not even his subs are really operating in numbers in areas where it could actually hurt me, something that is totally beyond me when CF is perfectly aware of the non exstant ASW of my Navy... all in all it is like I've said, I got no clue what Cuttlefish is up to, when I am sitting in the middle of the SRA it will be certainly too late for him to react as I fully doubt that anyone would be able to drive me back out after I have bitten my teeth into the most vital areas of Japan...

this is one of those misteries to me, CF is using this part of 21st Div to hunt down some completely trashed, unsupplied Dutch remnants on Sumatra when the airforce could completely destroy them too... I would recombine the division and use it somewhere trying to put up a delaying fight against the Allied offensives both around Timor and around the Bismarck Sea... it's 10/42, shouldn't the IJ be strong enough to at least hurt me? Just curious...

here's the effect of our victory at Rabaul, the enemy had an unexpected positive victory ratio for 9 days again but with the loss of Rabaul and Rangoon being Allied soon again too we will gain a real lead in points, at least until the Allied troops on Luzon and Java have to surrender which will be inevitable in the end as supply just won't last forever...